Lil’ Ed Williams promises one thing with each show: It will be played for the crowd.

“I can’t have a song list because I’m not going to play anything on it anyway,” Williams says. “I play by the feeling of the crowd. It’s about what they want.”

Somewhere between the first and third song, Williams said he knows exactly what tempo of music he needs to play most.

“I just go in and be Lil’ Ed and that’s all I can be,” he says.

Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials are just now trying to get back into playing in college towns. The band played in a lot of college towns when it first started and the more it played, the more its college fanbase grew.

“College kids are crazy and that’s the kind of band we are,” Williams says said. “I love doing colleges.”

Williams says he believes blues is an important part of music’s history and its future.

“Blues runs in a circle; it will always go up and down and it will always make that circle,” he says. He says he believes some genres, like disco, “were not strong enough to last and make that circle.”

During shows, Lil’ Ed dances across the stage and walks like a duck through the audience. He says the music has a lot to do with how he dances.

“I started to play and the music got into my body and I just started to move,” Williams says. “The music moves me, I just like to get close to people and look them in the eye”

Williams has a positive outlook on life that can be heard through his voice.

“You don’t want to sit around and be bored,” he says. “I’m a happy guy. I try to keep a smile during the happy and hard times. I got that from my uncle, If you keep smiling then there is nothing to be sad about.”